[News]

FMX adds new dimension to the New Zealand Winter Games

7 years ago

Freestyle Motocross is set to go huge at this year’s 100% Pure New Zealand Winter Games as part of the Skullcandy NZ Big Air Series in Auckland and Methven.

The series will kick off with the Auckland Big Air on June 4 marking the launch of 100% Pure New Zealand Winter Games. Alongside the return of the Auckland Snow Show, the Auckland Big Air will transform Viaduct Basin with a massive spectacle of ski, snowboard, wakeboards and FMX action. The second event will be held in Methven on August 27 to mark the closing weekend of the 100% Pure New Zealand Winter Games.

“It’s a good feeling to be able to put this event on for the general public who don’t get to see this sort of thing every day. A lot of people have seen FMX on TV but seeing a rider 35 foot in the air doing backflip tricks is nothing like on TV,” said FMX event organiser, Robert “Turbo” Turner.

Both events will feature world-class FMX riders including Kain Saul (AUS) and Nick Franklin (NZL), who rides full-time for Red Bull in Europe.

Twenty-six-year-old Kain Saul from the Gold Coast pulled his first back flip when he was 17 and he was the first person in the world to flip a Harley Davidson. Kain rides for Crusty Demons, was the 2008 Australian Freestyle champion.

Riders will jump a 75-foot gap, pulling areal tricks, flips and spins. “You’ll see all the big tricks that you see at the Crusty Demons shows and the X Games,” said Turner.

100% Pure New Zealand Winter Games takes place from August 12 to 28, 2011, featuring a full off-snow festival programme as well as world-class snow and ice competition involving 1,000 of the world’s elite winter sports athletes in Dunedin, Naseby, Queenstown, Wanaka and Methven.